A Brief Chat With Matt Hughes

By Peter GambacciniPhotos courtesy of the University of LouisvilleMatt Hughes of the University of Louisville was the 2010 NCAA 3000-meter steeplechase champion (in 8:34. 18) and will be looking

to defend that title later this spring. Last weekend at the Big East Championships at Villanova, Hughes won the steeple in 8:44.39 and was the runnerup in the 5000; at the 2010 Championships he won both events. A former hockey and soccer player from Ontario, Hughes was the Canadian Junior steeplechase champion in 2007 and went on to place fourth in the Pan American Junior Games. He began his collegiate career at Clemson before a coaching change caused him to switch to Louisville.How many steeplechase races have you done this year, besides the Big East one?Matt Hughes: That was just my second one. I ran one at a home meet. I think I ran 8:52.Is the idea just to pass up some early meets because there are only a certain number of steeplechases you want to do a year and you do have Regionals and NCAAs coming up?MH: Yeah, going into this year, sitting down with coach, I said I wanted my season to go beyond NCAAs this year, looking at making the Canadian team for the World Championships this summer. And I just feel if I do too many steeples in a season, I start to break down near the end. So I just feel the less steeples I did this year going into NCAAs, the better. We just used that first home meet to get the Regional mark out of the way and then Big East was to lay down a little bit better time so I could be right up at the top of the Regional and descending order list, just to feel confident going into Regionals.Are you pretty happy with your Big East performance?MH: Yeah, considering the weather. The weather was kind of brutal. It was rainy and windy, and I did most of the work up front. I'm pretty happy. That's right where I was last year.Last year you actually won the 5000 as well, but this year you got second.MH: (Laughs). Yeah, I just got edged out by Ed Finan of Cincinnati. I guess it's just justice. I got him last year, he got me this year.From what I read, it seems like you pick up ground on the other runners because of your technique at the steeple barriers. Do you think you're one of the better 'barrier clearers' in the NCAA?MH: I guess that's one thing we really try to focus on. The

foundation of Coach [Brice] Allen's steeple program is that technique is going to help you more than the running aspect. Anybody who's a collegiate athlete is going to be good at running anyway. The most ground you're going to make up in the steeple is on technique, so I just feel that that's one of the main things we work on in this program and I feel that's helped me out the most since I've been here.When you chose Louisville after having been at Clemson for a short time, were you aware that besides the strength of the overall program, you were specifically going to get good steeplechase coaching?MH: Oh yeah, I think that's kind of what it came down to. I feel that postcollegiately, my main event's going to be the steeple and that's what I hope to focus on in the future. With the direction he [Allen] had had with Cory Thorne, an All-American he had coached, and with the history of his program, I just felt like it was a good direction and a good fit for me.You only started the steeplechase when you were a senior in high school, is that right?MH: Yeah. Sitting down with my coach in high school, we were trying to make the Pan Am team for the juniors in Canada and the 1500 and 5K were kind of stacked at the team and we just thought my best chance of making the team would be in the steeple. So we ended up giving it a shot that year, and it ended up working for the best, I guess.Is your schoolwork over with at this point?MH: I just finished up exams last week for this year. I actually don't graduate until next May so I still have a cross country season of eligibility (but no more track).It must be a relief to be going into these major meets now without having to worry about studies. Do you find the dual tasks of being an athlete and a scholar to be taxing at times?MH: Yeah, definitely in those last three weeks of the semester, when you're trying to finish up all your final projects and papers. It definitely gets a little stressful. Being in the championship (part of the) season and not having to worry about school is definitely a bonus.Did you compete indoors this winter?MH: I did, but I didn't take it too seriously. I just feel like a lot of the guys who end up making indoor nationals are kind of burnt out by the time the outdoor season starts. I'm not saying I didn't try indoors, but I don't put too much emphasis or stock into the indoor season because I feel like if you're going to try and hold fitness from January to June, you're going to break down somewhere in between.Are you a pretty high mileage guy?MH: That's one thing we looked at this season. My high mileage weeks are usually around 95, but this year we jumped to just over 100 or two or three weeks, and that's the first time I've been over 100. But consistently, I guess I'm a high mileage guy. I don't like to dip below 75 miles a week and I usually keep it up toward 85 or 90. I was probably 70 leading up to Big East. These next two weeks leading up to Regionals I'll be getting a little more mileage in, and after that, I don't really count mileage.As opposed to the flat races, do you actually think of the steeplechase as a fun thing to do?MH: Yeah, I like it. I don't know if it's fun, but it's fun to win. I've found one that I'm good at, why not keep pursuing it? It's good to get in the water on a hot day.You focused on other sports before track. How good were you in hockey? Could you have made Canadian national junior teams?MH: Probably not. The way it works in Canada, if you don't start playing "rep" hockey early (ie, town's travel teams), the coaches don't really get a feel for the athlete. I was pretty good. I played "rep" hockey the last couple of years of elementary school and my first couple of years of high school. And then it just came down to that I wasn't really big enough, and once you get into that higher level of hockey, you get thrown around a lot if you're not one of the bigger guys. My high school coach was like "you've got to make a decision here, what do you want to do, hockey or track," and it looked like track would be the better thing for me. And it's worked out so far.To make the team for the World Championships, I assume you'd have to go a Canadian national championships after NCAAs.MH: Yes. Basically how this is going to work is I have until the 25th (of June), which is the Canadian Trials (date), to hit two "B" standards or an "A" standard. And the "B" standard is 8:32 (for the steeplechase), and the "A" standard is 8:23. I'm hoping to dip just below 8:30 at the Regional meet if the weather's good, and I'm going to have to run just as fast as that to win NCAAs this year, too. If I hit those two marks, I just have to show up to the Trials and make the top three.Who do you think will be your prime rivals in the steeple at the NCAAs? I know Donn Cabral (of Princeton) is back, Is Hillary Bor (of Iowa State) back also?MH: I was able to watch Hillary at Mt. SAC where I ran a 5K a couple of weeks ago, and he looked pretty clean. Donn Cabral just ran 8:40something at the Heptagonals this weekend. And there's a transfer from Virginia who's at Oregon, Steve Finley, he just ran 8:36 at Stanford a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure a few more guys will come out as well at Regionals time. I know I have my work cut out for me and have my work to do. I just feel like if I do everything that I've done the last couple of years right and, leading up to it, stay healthy, I give myself a pretty good shot.Where will you be based for the summer's training?MH: That's one thing we've been debating. I feel like when I go back home (to Ontario), it's not the best training environment because I haven't seen my friends in awhile, and you get home and you end up hanging out and going out a little bit too much rather than training. After NCAAs, I'll probably go home for about two weeks leading up to the Canadian Trials, and if I end up making the team, I might actually go train in Boston with a friend I knew from Clemson.You'll have one season of cross country left in the fall? How much success have you had in it and how much do you like cross country?MH: I like cross country. There's the whole team atmosphere and all that, which is great. But I haven't really had a successful cross country season by my standards, anyway. I ran really great at Pre-Nats last year; I think I was 12th. I thought I set myself up pretty well but by the time nationals came, I didn't have the race that I wanted to (he was 68th). Definitely in this cross country season, I'd like to be All-American because I feel like I should have been able to grab that last year, and it's my last season. There aren't too many national champions in the steeple who've been All-Americans in cross country.

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